- (1.) THE Tribunal, Allahabad, has referred the following question of law under s. 256(1) of the IT Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') for opinion to this Court : "Whether the Tribunal was justified in cancelling the penalty under s. 271B for the asst. yr. 1991 -92 although the assessee failed to submit audit report along with their return within the time specified under s. 139(1) of the IT Act, 1961 -
(2.) THE present reference relates to the asst. yrs. 1990 -91 and 1991 -92.
(3.) BRIEFLY stated the facts giving rise to the present reference are as follows : The respondent assessee, which has been assessed to income -tax in the status of a registered firm, filed its return for also been filed along with the returns as required under s. 44AB of the Act. On the premises that such audit reports were were initiated and penalty of Rs. 38,367 and Rs. 42,594 for the respective assessment years has been imposed. The appeal before the CIT(A) had failed. However, the Tribunal has allowed the appeal and has held that as the audit reports 1990 -91 and 1991 -92 respectively, the Tribunal took the view that with the extension of one month's period for filing of time. The Tribunal has also accepted the reasons for late filing of the audit report for the asst. yr. 1990 -91. So far as the asst. yr. 1991 -92 is concerned, it may be mentioned here that the audit report was obtained within time and, therefore, the Tribunal had deleted the penalty on the ground that it was not incumbent upon the respondent assessee to file audit report before the specified date. The only requirement is to obtain the audit report before the specified date, which in the present case has been done. We have heard Sri A.N. Mahajan, learned standing counsel for the Revenue. Nobody has appeared on behalf of the respondent assessee.;